Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 92

Verando flinches before I can answer, stiff with the suggestion. "I just got my kids back. I'm not thirsting to be apart from them." His voice is coarse, I nearly touch him, attempting to calm the annoyance in his voice. The prominent fangs, and the flash of his eyes only they seem to brighten instead of darken which gave me a reason to pause. 

"It's alright, Randy. You and Tomas go back, I'll have Rowan drive me home when we're finished here."

Tightening his jaw, he gives her a warning growl low in his throat before gathering Xaiver and guiding Darrius back toward the SUV. Sighing in relief, I run a hand through my hair as Rowan stares after them in shock. 

"Very surprising. I wasn't expecting that response. I was just trying to be friendly."

"Honey, he's in a really weird place right now, but that's kind of how Verando is. He can be very charming, sweet, funny, but he is also ridiculously protective of those two boys." I'm not sure how she will respond to that fact, seeing as he was also her father and she hadn't gotten much of that from him considering he'd left her and her mother behind to go to war with me. 

Absorbing this, finally, she smiles with an air of acceptance. "Good. I like that about him, then. You need me right now, so we will focus on that. Tom really has missed him, I shouldn't have tried to intrude on that anyhow. Honestly, it's nice to be needed." Touching my arm, it seems to bring her as much relief as it brings me. Lycan's thrived on the bond and the closeness, she'd been without much of a pack for who knows how long, I imagine being close to a blood relative was doing a plethora of discomfort to her wolf.

"How are you holding up? I've hardly even asked about you." I gesture for her to follow as we leave the park, holding out my arm for her to link hers into. She accepts it graciously, a small shiver running through her body, I remember Penelope used to get cold, too. The clack of her heeled boots echos off the near vacant streets of the mid day slump. 

We slip into a coffee shop, sitting down at a private table as she cuddles up in her coat for warmth. The startling eyes peering out of me in the mass of hair, she looked almost exactly like Temptrest save for the eyes. "I'm sad. I was hoping he'd have more interest, but it's going to take time. I'm grateful that he's willing to let me help you, my mother always said he vanished because he wanted to be with a man, I guess that was somewhat true but not in the way she phrased it."

"You must resent me." I sigh, folding my hands in my lap as I order a coffee and some tomato soup. She does the same, opting for the chicken noodle instead. 

"Not at all. I'm actually quite pleased." She manages through her clenched teeth, chuckling at her own shivering. Rowan had gotten much colder than she'd let on, I was shocked she held out for so long. "I didn't know what to expect, but you're exactly how I pictured you. Kind, smart, shorter than I thought but... it suits you."

I hold up my hands, showing her my palms before pressing them together. "Penelope did this all the time, make friction with your hands, then use them like heaters. She hated to be cold." I mimic the move her mother use to make, startling the waitress with the crackle of ice and frost that spreads on the table. 

Hesitant, she puts her hands together before attempting the move, sparking the fire onto the menu as we both frantically pat it out. Earning a frown from the waitress, she takes the menus from us as she sets our coffee down. "Guess we better tip her well," I mumble as Rowan hides her embarrassment behind her hand with a large smile that touches her eyes. Dimpling her cheeks, it was contagious as I smile back. 

I genuinely liked her. She was innocent, but not in the way that Helen was. Tomas had not kept any form of life from her, she'd just chosen this righteous path all on her own.